DEAD ON MARS “Arrival”

Self Released, 2018

Music: Symphonic Metal / Symphonic Extreme Metal

Website: https://deadonmars.wordpress.com

Duration: 49:19 minutes (8 tracks)

Country: Germany

What happens if you blend two of the heaviest metal genres together?, the outcome is nothing but a ruthless sound. Dead On Mars, a German One Man band spearheaded by the multi-instrumentalist, T Winter. Blending the sound of Death Metal and punishing Symphonic Black metal, Winter likes his music heavy and instrumental. I really love Winter’s perspective on Dead On Mars being an Instrumental project. “There are no vocals because everything is already “said” by the music. The orchestral instruments are replacing the voice”-Winter.

Starting the album with the 5 minute track, Into The Unknown-it wasn’t until the album got to the second track, Arrival that I started digging his music more. As clearly stated by himself, the orchestral arrangement perfectly replaces the vocal arrangement since those parts really pave a nice transition for the music to start growing and escalating in terms of heaviness. The next track, Truthseeker is more heavier and has a lot of memorable section including but not limited to the smoothly transiting orchestral arrangement. Overlapped with Melo Death-esque riffs, it is the orchestral presence that take the centre stage.

Being a one man band is never easy. I have to appreciate the effort made by Winters to write such a beautiful album like Arrival. Even though this album is his debut effort, he have shown his prowess in writing music. The only issue for me was the computerised feel which kinda shadows the beautiful rhythm at the background. I know, it is one man band and you can’t expect him to tediously study everything. However the whole songwriting is perfect and stays original with a little to no stereotypical elements.

Winters has truly earned my respect and with an exceptional debut effort, I strongly believe there’s more to come in future. Arrival captured my attention, and I hope the next album will be a truly remarkable one similar to its predecessor, Arrival.

Line-up: 

T Winters – all instruments

Tracklist:

1.Into The Unknown
2.Arrival
3.Truthseeker
4.Of All The Vanished Worlds
5.Until My Enemies Float Down The River
6.Winter Begins
7.The Siren’s Calling
8.At Race With Death

Rate: 8.5/10